He is best known as the co-founder, frontman, and lead vocalist for the pop rock band OneRepublic, while also serving as a prolific contributor—by songwriting and production—to material for other artists since the mid-2000s.

[7] He was a self-taught vocalist who secretly began imitating his favorite artists, such as The Beatles, U2, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder, and Sting at the age of twelve.

[9][10] There he met and became friends with future OneRepublic bandmate Zach Filkins on their soccer team at the Colorado Springs Christian School.

He attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa and graduated in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in public relations and advertising.

[11] Tedder worked as a waiter and a shop assistant at Pottery Barn before securing an internship at DreamWorks SKG in Nashville, where he sang on multiple demos.

[5] Tedder claims that DreamWorks offered him his first publishing deal shortly after his arrival; however, he was intent on pursuing a career as an artist, and his first venture in that arena came via a different route altogether.

[12] The prize for the winner was a music contract with Bass's now-defunct management company, Free Lance Entertainment.

Tedder's performance of one of his songs, "The Look", received the most votes from the judges and fans, and he won the competition; however, a contract with a recording label was not finalized and no album was released.

[13] One year after winning the MTV competition, Tedder caught the attention of the hip hop producer Timbaland.

[13] Tedder's work crossed many musical genres (ranging from hip hop, R&B, rock, pop to dance) and he has had chart successes in both America and the United Kingdom with some artists.

[17] Tedder has written and produced singles with artists such as Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Adele, Birdy, Alsou, Jennifer Lopez, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Leona Lewis, Jennifer Hudson, Alexandra Burke, the Backstreet Boys, Beyoncé Knowles, Monrose, and a number of songs with various rock acts in the US and abroad.

He worked with Kelly Clarkson on her 2009 album All I Ever Wanted, penning the songs "If I Can't Have You", "Impossible", "Save You", "Tip of My Tongue" and "Already Gone", which features vocals from Tedder.

Tedder worked extensively on Leona Lewis's second album, Echo, writing and producing several songs with her, three of which made the album, including the first single "Happy", "You Don't Care" which features vocals from Tedder and "Lost Then Found", which features OneRepublic.

Tedder worked on American Idol season 8 runner up Adam Lambert's debut album, For Your Entertainment.

The Patriot team of writers and producers with Tedder are credited with "I Was Here" by Beyoncé, "Good Life" by OneRepublic, "I Just Had Sex" by The Lonely Island featuring Akon, "Lost Then Found" by Leona Lewis and OneRepublic, "Just a Guy" by BC Jean, "Count on You" by Big Time Rush featuring Jordin Sparks, and "And Then We Dance", from Australia's Got Talent winners Justice Crew.

Adele and Tedder arranged a second meeting and reconvened at Serenity West Studios in Los Angeles weeks later to write and record "Rumour Has It".

When talking about working with Tedder on the song "Who's That Boy" during a Spotify session named "About Unbroken", Lovato stated: "He's a really funny and cool guy, we had a really great time in the studio."

He co-produced and co-wrote the single "Neon Lights" from Demi, while also penning the track "Wildfire" with Lovato for Confident.

[24] Tedder also worked with the group Big Time Rush in writing the single, "Music Sounds Better with U" off their second studio album, Elevate, and he proceeded to produce it.

Tedder co-wrote and co-produced the song "Satellite" for British band The Wanted which appears on their US album released on April 24, 2012.

[34] Tedder was also an advisor of Adam Levine (frontman of Maroon 5), for his team from the fifth season of the reality competition show The Voice (U.S.).

[48] Tedder also provided vocals for the song "Scars" by Swedish DJ Alesso, featured on his debut studio album, Forever.

He added, "She's not only an incredible singer, but she's also the most talented young artist I think I've worked with songwriting in the longest time..."[53] In 2020, Tedder co-wrote "Bet You Wanna", a song by the girl group Blackpink featuring Cardi B from their debut studio album The Album.

[54] In January 2021, Tedder sold a majority stake of his music catalog for around $200 million to investment firm KKR.

The six-member band consisting of Tedder, Zach Filkins, Eddie Fisher, Drew Brown, Brent Kutzle, and Brian Willett was formed in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2002 by Tedder and his high school classmate Zach Filkins.

A portion of the proceeds from the sales of the lead single "Feel Again", was donated to Save the Children's Every Beat Matters, a campaign to support training frontline health workers around the world.

[76] In 2019, Tedder wrote and produced his solo single debut "Right Where I'm Supposed to Be" as the Official Song of the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in collaboration with Avril Lavigne, Luis Fonsi, Hussain Al Jassmi, Assala Nasri and Tamer Hosny.

[77] In 2019, it was announced that Tedder would be a mentor and producer-host on NBC's Songland alongside Ester Dean and Shane McAnally.

To date the show has had two seasons, with songs produced and written with Tedder being released in more episodes as compared to the fellow hosts.

[81] On August 22, 2011, it was announced that Tedder had become the first franchisee of the Southern Hospitality BBQ brand and there were plans to bring the concept to 10 cities across the United States including Denver, Nashville, Dallas, Austin, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Phoenix, Palo Alto, and Washington, D.C.[82] Studio albums with OneRepublic Tedder has received three Grammy Awards out of eleven nominations[83] and an Asian Pop Music Award,[84] and has been nominated for one Golden Globe Award.